BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — CIM Commercial Trust Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCT), a REIT that owns and manages Class A office assets, has signed a definitive agreement to purchase a nine-story office building located at 9460 Wilshire Blvd. in the Golden Triangle area of Beverly Hills.
The sales price was undisclosed, but multiple media outlets are reporting the Dallas-based REIT bought the Class A office building from Beverly Union Co. for approximately $130 million. The acquisition is expected to close this quarter.
“9460 Wilshire is in a highly desirable and high-barrier-to-entry office market. It is a strong addition to CIM Commercial Trust’s portfolio,” says Charles Garner, CEO of CIM Commercial Trust. “The property has not changed ownership in almost 40 years, and is positioned for growth by tapping CIM’s operational expertise and long-term experience in the Los Angeles market.”
The 97,000-square-foot office building was built in 1959 and last renovated in 2008. The building is located at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive, adjacent to the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire Hotel and one block from the future Metro Purple Line Wilshire/Rodeo Station.
Beverly Hills is situated within the Los Angeles West office submarket, which had a vacancy rate of 12.7 percent at the close of the third quarter of 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The vacancy rate jumped by 210 basis points from third-quarter 2016 thanks in part to 1 million square feet of deliveries in the first three months of 2017. The submarket is still tighter than the overall Los Angeles office market, which closed the third quarter at 14.9 percent vacancy.
Landlords within the submarket’s Class A stock have also been able to push rents by more than 6 percent year-over-year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
CIM Commercial Trust is managed by CIM Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate management, investment and development firm.
CIM Commercial Trust’s portfolio includes 15 office buildings in the metro areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento and the 308-unit 4200 Scotland Street apartment community in Houston.
The REIT’s stock price closed on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at $19.20 per share, up from $15.65 per share a year ago.
— John Nelson